This is a desk I purchased for $17 from Goodwill. A little bit of TLC later and it was turned into a gorgeous computer desk.

To me, there are 2 kinds of furniture pieces that I put in my home. First, there are the impulse pieces. You know the ones where you say, “I don’t care, I have to have it, I will find a place for it even if I have to get rid of something to make room for it.” Those are the pieces that we are lucky enough to have fall in our laps from time to time.

The other type is the one you have to search for. Sometimes these can seem to take forever to find. They are the more specific pieces of furniture that I know I need in that one place in my house. They are the ones that have a specific look, a specific size, a specific feel. To find those pieces you have to hunt for them.

I have several different go-to places to find the perfect furniture and they aren’t necessarily where you might think to look first. Read More

Below is a video I put together with us setting up for the outdoor movie night we had this past weekend. It was my first time putting together a tutorial video. I have never done a time lapse video or voice dub-over. It also took me quite a bit of time to work in the logo and intro sounds. These are things I have to learn as Jen has several tutorials she’s planning to share with you guys. In the end it was fun to make but it’s definitely rough around the edges.

The movie we watched was a family favorite called “Willow”. We had several friends who had never seen it that we had to help culture. 🙂 I hope you enjoy the video and more importantly I hope it inspires you to take some time out of your busy day and enjoy some outdoor movie time with family and friends.

This is part two of a two part series celebrating Memorial Day. Part one is here. Enjoy.

Patina Effect

As we pickup from part one, my family and I had been placing pennies, alternating between shiny and dark pennies for each stripe. Each stripe was four rows thick. When we got about halfway up the flag it was time to decide what I was going to do with the left blue corner of the flag. The other examples I had seen used dark pennies similar to the red stripes in the flag. It looked cool in the photos however I thought it would be neat to try something a little different. The idea in my head was to age the pennies like the Statue of Liberty and develop a greenish blue Read More

This is part one of a two part series celebrating Memorial Day. Enjoy.

As usual, for me, this journey began somewhere in cyberspace. I’m not sure exactly where I saw it first, but when I did, I immediately fell in love with it. How cool would it be to make an American Flag out of pennies. It would be super cool of course. And I knew I couldn’t just make a small one like I had seen on the internet I had to go big so I decided on the size of 3′ x 5′. It seemed like a good round number and was larger than anything I had seen. Go big or go home I guess. Read More

LETS FACE IT everyone hates choosing paint colors. It’s an important aspect of any home yet everyone seems to have their own opinion of what good looks like.

Lets take gray for example. It’s so popular and yet so hard to choose. WHY? Its too purple, its too cold, its too blue! So annoying! When I go to pick out a color, that will be in the majority of my house, I want it to be right. I will go to 5 different stores and get color swatches in the gray category that are different brands and compare them to one another. I spread them all out and start the process of elimination. Another great way to explain it to people is by using the color swatches that have the whole family, from lightest to darkest, on one strip. When choosing a gray, if the darkest color at the end of the strip is black its going to fall in the cold, purple, blue category. Think of it this way, if you are trying to use a gray that is earthy enough to use with your wood furniture up against it you should think brown gray. If your furniture is mostly black, then going for a gray that has black at the bottom of the strip is ok to use. If you are like me, and you have lots of brown furniture that you want to pair with your gray walls, then you need to find one with earth (aka more brown less black) in it. See comparison below. Read More

“Thinking outside the box (store)”

One of my latest projects was redoing my half bathroom. It was a fairly average makeover besides the vanity. I decided to take an old dresser I bought and turn it into a unique vanity / conversation piece.

This project took some searching. First, I looked on craigslist and other “for sale” sites, for the perfect dresser that fit the dimensions I was looking for. I needed it to be 36 inches long, 22 inches deep and about 33 inches tall. I tried to find one that was similar in size to the vanity that I was replacing. This is an important step because I planned to buy a vanity top prefabricated, either at Lowes or Home Depot. These tops come in only a few standard sizes. I wanted a prefabbed top for 2 reasons: Read More

So for a long time now I have been told by my friends that I need to start a blog to display my DIY projects and achievements.

My name is Jennifer, aka Jen. I am learning to perfect the art of DIY. I love to take things that have potential and make them great or great again. I am able to see things beyond their current state. I can see the potential in a piece or space and am proud to be apart of giving it the WOW factor it deserves. Read More